Public employee unions’ relationship with Democratic Legislators has shown cracks over the results of the Special Election and the on-going difficult state budget. But, the biggest crack may not be on the radar, yet – some elected Democrats hoping that the Open Primary effort a year from now is successful.
It’s one of those whispered comments you hear in the halls of the capitol from time to time, where rumors are as popular as cold beer at a hot Fourth of July picnic. But this one has some weight to it.
Democratic legislators believe they made the difficult but correct choice to put off even deeper budget cuts by supporting the Governor’s budget deal in the Special Election. While the California Teachers Association went along with some of the package, especially the key measure on establishing a spending limit and extending taxes, a number of public unions, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union balked. In fact, they put money into defeating the measures.
Now a number of public employee unions are demanding tax increases to help close the budget deficit, despite voters’ determination to stop tax increases as demonstrated by the vote at the special election. Democratic legislators, for the most part, are not signing on right now to union demands that they back a package of tax increases mostly focused on businesses, products and high-end income groups.
And, some of those Democrats may be quietly cheering for the success of the Open Primary to break the grip of the public unions on their party.
The Open Primary, which allows the top two finishers in a primary contest to face off in the general election notwithstanding either candidate’s party affiliation, will appear as a ballot measure in the June 2010 Primary Election. Placing the measure on that ballot was part of the demands made by Republican State Senator Abel Maldonado to secure his vote for the February budget deal.
Democrats in the legislature roundly criticized the proposal but went along to get the final vote on the budget deal. The Democratic Party (as well as the Republican Party) has announced they will go all out to defeat the measure. However, the capitol corridor whispers indicate that some Democrats think it would be refreshing to distance themselves from the unions and their demands and that the Open Primary would weaken the unions’ influence. According to this theory, if candidates have to find some middle ground to get into the run-off in certain districts, they might more safely ignore the demands of the public employee unions.
Given the current cool relationship between the unions and elected Democrats over the budget problems, this whisper may get louder as time goes by.